KNX Never Got Around to Installing That Revolving Door
Dodger managers used to be the paradigm of job continuity, with only Walter Alston and Tommy Lasorda holding that position from 1954 to 1996. But after a few years of upheaval at Chavez Ravine, now KNX-AM (1070) may be setting the example, as the station has just named a news director--only its fourth since it went all-news in 1968.
Ed Pyle takes over the job from Bob Sims, who is retiring after 33 years at KNX. Pyle, moving up a step from his former position as executive news producer, is a relative newcomer to the station--he’s only been there 17 years.
“The stability here is amazing,” Pyle said. “When you think of the all-news operations around the country, I don’t know if you’ll find any who had a news director that has been there anywhere near 20 years.”
He said he hopes to live up to Sims’ dual legacies at the station: the shelves full of industry awards garnered over the years, and the longevity of the staff, a phenomenon in a business where most resumes are filled with an alphabet soup of call letters.
“It’s remarkable that a guy in this business has been at one operation for so long,” Pyle said of Sims. “And the general manager has been here longer than any of them. He has great loyalty to his employees, and they to him.”
“I like to think it’s me,” said general manager George Nicholaw, laughing. But he credited Sims with creating a nurturing environment that attracts journalists and keeps them there. “I expect that to continue under the stewardship of Ed Pyle.”
Moving up with Pyle is Ronnie Bradford, KNX news producer since 1982, who takes over Pyle’s job as executive news producer.
“We really have a fortunate situation where we segue from one news director to another news director. It’s a very lucky break for me to be confident to just turn over a news operation,” Nicholaw said.
Sims, who could not be reached, had been on family medical leave for seven months before deciding to retire, Nicholaw said, and Pyle and Bradford had been filling in during that span. Those promotions become permanent April 29.
Before coming to KNX in 1985, Pyle was news editor and news director at KFWB-AM (980), the all-news station that, like KNX, is owned by Infinity Broadcasting. He started as a print reporter, working on the newspaper at his remote Army base, Ft. Greeley, Alaska, in 1958. But he became a broadcast journalist when the soldier operating the base television station asked him to fill in.
“He went on leave and asked if I’d be interested in subbing,” Pyle said. “The guy came back and they reassigned him.”
After getting out of the Army, Pyle spent most of the ‘60s knocking around radio stations in Florida’s Tampa Bay area, where he grew up.
“In 1967, a number of cities around the country were experiencing rioting,” Pyle said, including Tampa, to a degree. “We had rioting on a scale that complemented our market size.
“I was marching at the head of a phalanx of National Guardsmen,” recording the sounds of the unrest and the response, he said, and his report was distributed by United Press International. An executive at XTRA Radio News in Tijuana heard it and offered Pyle a job.
“He told me the salary differential. A week or so later I was headed west. That changed my whole life,” Pyle said, for the first time exposing him to Southern California, and vice versa.
It was an auspicious time for radio news in the region. KFWB went to its all-news format in March 1968, and KNX followed in April, just after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. And the bombshell events--particularly in Southern California--did not let up for the fledgling news operations.
After the King murder and the civil unrest that erupted in some areas came Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination in Los Angeles. Then, Pyle noted, “you had the Manson Family and the moon landing--for those two news stations, having that kind of news was really a jump-start.”
Bradford was there almost from the beginning, coming to KNX in June 1968 as a news writer. A Los Angeles native, he had previously attended USC, served in Vietnam and worked at KABC-AM (790) before the first news director of the new KNX, Jim Zallian, brought him into the budding operation.
“He taught us, all young cub reporters, how to be good journalists,” Bradford said, a tradition that followed with the subsequent news directors, Gregg Peterson and Sims.
Bradford said his defining moment came the night of Jan. 18, 1969. A United Airlines 727 jet crashed into the ocean about nine miles off Marina del Rey after takeoff from Los Angeles International Airport, killing 38 people, and he was one of only three staffers on duty at KNX.
“In the evening, everybody’s gone home and it’s just you and a skeleton staff,” Bradford said, remembering how he scrambled to recall reporters who had gone home. “That was my indoctrination into breaking news.”
But he said he’s proudest of the Peabody Award for broadcast excellence that the station won in 1984, for a series on immigration that he produced. The station looked at how immigrants were victimized, and how they affected the area’s political, social and cultural life.
Like many news organizations coping with the economic downturn, he said KNX has struggled to work through staff reductions, such as vacancies that don’t get filled.
“We used to have eight reporters on the street at one time; now we might have four or five. Some things you just let go,” such as chases or lesser crime news, he said.
“But we do our best and hope to please our audience,” Bradford said. “We built a reputation, and we’ll try to maintain that reputation.”
Pyle said he intends to finish his 30-plus-year career at KNX, like a ballplayer remaining loyal to a team. And other than switching its forecast provider to the Weather Channel, and a few other tweaks he might undertake, Pyle said he foresees no major changes.
“I’m going to move fairly slowly,” Pyle said.
“I hope to maintain a quality product, maintain our record of stability and live up to what we’re supposed to do--serve the people of Southern California. That’s what we’re licensed to do.”